Kerry Kennedy is proud of her cousin Tatiana Schlossberg after she went public with her terminal cancer diagnosis.
“I think she is so courageous to put herself out [there] in such a public way and all of us are holding her close to our hearts and holding Caroline [Kennedy] especially as well,” Kerry, 66, exclusively told Us Weekly at the annual Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Award Gala on Tuesday, December 9.
Last month, Caroline’s daughter Tatiana, 35, revealed that she had been battling acute myeloid leukemia and was given a year to live. (Caroline, 68, shares Tatiana, daughter Rose Schlossberg and son, Jack Schlossberg, with husband Edwin Schlossberg.)
“I did not — could not — believe that they were talking about me. I had swum a mile in the pool the day before, nine months pregnant. I wasn’t sick. I didn’t feel sick. I was actually one of the healthiest people I knew,” Tatiana wrote in an essay published in The New Yorker on November 22. “I had a son whom I loved more than anything and a newborn I needed to take care of.”
Tatiana Schlossberg, 35, Says 1st Thought Amid Terminal Cancer Was Her Kids
Tatiana — who shares son Edwin, 3, and a 19-month-old daughter, whose name has yet to be revealed, with husband George Moran — explained that she learned of her diagnosis after giving birth to her daughter in May 2024. Her doctor discovered an imbalance in her white blood cell count, which ended up being “a rare mutation called Inversion 3.”
Since she was told she could not be “cured by a standard course” of treatment, Tatiana received a bone-marrow transplant after giving birth and then underwent chemotherapy at home. In January, Tatiana joined a clinical trial of CAR-T-cell therapy — however, she was made aware of her life expectancy.
“My first thought was that my kids, whose faces live permanently on the inside of my eyelids, wouldn’t remember me,” she shared. “My son might have a few memories, but he’ll probably start confusing them with pictures he sees or stories he hears. I didn’t ever really get to take care of my daughter — I couldn’t change her diaper or give her a bath or feed her, all because of the risk of infection after my transplants. I was gone for almost half of her first year of life. I don’t know who, really, she thinks I am, and whether she will feel or remember, when I am gone, that I am her mother.”
Following Tatiana’s essay, her brother, Jack, showed his support for her by sharing a screenshot of her writing along with a link to his Instagram Stories.
“Life is short — let it rip,” he wrote.
Tatiana Schlossberg Reveals How Her Siblings Supported Cancer Treatment
Elsewhere in her essay, Tatiana praised her family for helping her through such a difficult time.
“My parents and my brother and sister, too, have been raising my children and sitting in my various hospital rooms almost every day for the last year and a half,” she said. “They have held my hand unflinchingly while I have suffered, trying not to show their pain and sadness in order to protect me from it. This has been a great gift, even though I feel their pain every day.”